Congratulations to pOETiq (aka pOETiqbEETz) for winning the Death Proof Beat Battle at the Element Lounge May 14th. 1028 Geary St. San Francisco!. Check for more music at myspace.com/poetiqx.
pOETiq has worked on a number of albums since he started working professionally in 96. He has worked on projects with En Vogue, Kiraly Linda Savina, Jaslyn Carter, and others. In Rap/Hip-Hop, he has done work for The Team, Bill Stack, Lady L.U.S.T., Kandi Cole, Carl B., Cal Cuta, Planet Asia, Rasco, Verbal Tactiks, and a host of local artists. In Gospel music, pOETiq has worked with Kathi Mills and Lawrence Matthews and even produced music for the Childrens Choir and The Youth & Youing Adult Choir at the Paradise Baptist Church where he is one of the choir directors.
And congrats to the runner-up, Chex Mex: myspace.com/chexmexofdor
For more info on upcoming Beat Battles (in the San Francisco/Cali area), check out http://www.myspace.com/phillipdrummond.
Los Naufragos – Otra Vez En La Via – Columbia: Since this is an educational article, and access to it is open to the public for free, I shouldnt have to clear any samples I post here, but the funny thing about laws, is that they can be interpreted differently, especially when any kind of money is involved. If I wanted to put it out on an album that sells less than 8-10,000 units, I probably wouldnt NEED to clear it, but if the owner of the rights to the recordings would have legal right to sue me, so it would be a gamble. The whole reason behind this logic is the fact that selling under 10,000 of an album probably wont make you enough money to clear a sample. The actual burden falls on the label that publishes the music for sale, not the producer of the track. Again, I really try to stay away from bigger artists and labels owned by larger corporations, because they have ears all over the place. Even if you chop a sample into something different, all it takes is for someone to prove exactly where you got it from, and you can lose out. About the record at hand: this is from a pretty big label, but I have never heard of the artist. I live in the South Side of Texas so a majority of the pawn shops, used book stores and garage sales have mostly rare Latin music and then the popular records you find everywhere else. At first I thought it was a bad thing, but believe it or not there are some very small labels that started in Mexico and Southern Texas that has some good recordings. Not every Latin record is a mono mariachi band screaming a foreign language over accordions and maracas. Anyways, this record is on Columbia, so obviously this guy impressed someone down the line, so I chose it. It didnt have a cover, it was just sitting in the middle of the records naked, so if this is a good record I will donate an extra case to keep it protected, otherwise it will go right back into the mix like I found it. 
During the 1960s, recording studios were growing fast due to the new 8-track recorders coming into the studios (thanks to Les Paul’s innovations from as early as the 1940s). Along with this, the art of mixing and creative engineering was born. Phil Spector started layering his instruments for an in-your-face trademark sound, that was actually dubbed “Wall of Sound.” The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds (engineered by Brian Wilson), which inspired the Beatles to record Sgt. Pepper. These are both great examples of creative engineering getting on its feet.
